Sen. Jefferson “Jeff” Sessions
Former Senator for Alabama
Sessions was a senator from Alabama and was a Republican. He served from 1997 to 2017.
![Photo of Sen. Jefferson “Jeff” Sessions [R-AL, 1997-2017]](/static/legislator-photos/300088-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2016 Report Card for Sessions.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Sessions is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2019 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Sessions sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2013 to Jan 2, 2019. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Sessions was the primary sponsor of 9 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 527 (114th): A bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Foot Soldiers who participated in Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, or in the final Selma to Montgomery Voting …
- S. 3070 (110th): Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemorative Coin Act
- S. 863 (110th): Emergency and Disaster Assistance Fraud Penalty Enhancement Act of 2007
- S. 741 (108th): Minor Use and Minor Species Animal Health Act of 2003
- S. 1435 (108th): Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003
- S. 3045 (106th): Paul Coverdell National Forensic Sciences Improvement Act of 2000
- S. 3137 (106th): James Madison Commemoration Commission Act
Does 9 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Sessions sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (68%) Immigration (11%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) International Affairs (11%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Sessions recently introduced the following legislation:
- S.Res. 517 (114th): A resolution designating September 2016 as “National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month”.
- S.Res. 408 (114th): A resolution designating April 2016 as “National Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Month”.
- S. 2561 (114th): Protection of Children Act of 2016
- S.Res. 248 (114th): A resolution designating September 2015 as “National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month”.
- S. 1842 (114th): Protecting American Lives Act
- S. 1640 (114th): Michael Davis, Jr. and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local …
- S.Res. 115 (114th): A resolution designating April 2015 as “National Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Month”.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1997 to Feb 2017, Sessions missed 175 of 6,295 roll call votes, which is 2.8%. This is worse than the median of 1.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Feb 2017. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
